


Enteropathy

by faithinthepoor



Series: Desperate Housewives [26]
Category: Desperate Housewives
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 23:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1960167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithinthepoor/pseuds/faithinthepoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during Silly People</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enteropathy

**Author's Note:**

> Follows [Unseemly](http://archiveofourown.org/works/668467), [The Theory of Everything](http://archiveofourown.org/users/faithinthepoor), [Here There Be Dragons](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673221), [Somnambulist](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673229), [Wishin’ and Hopin’](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673233), [Nosology](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673238), [Boundary Violations](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673240), [Fractals](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673250), [Windmill Tilting](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673255), [Ambitendency](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673262), [Heisenberg Territory](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673272), [The Illusions of Prisms](http://archiveofourown.org/works/673700), [Keratitis Sicca](http://archiveofourown.org/works/682311), [Schrödinger’s Realm](http://archiveofourown.org/works/682327), [Chiaroscuro](http://archiveofourown.org/works/682358), [Altered Trajectories](http://archiveofourown.org/works/682370), [Elegiacs](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1952136), [Tachyphylaxis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1952244), [Verismo](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1953516), [Forced Perspective](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1953594), [Lex Talionis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1953624), [Repetition Compulsion](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1953663), [Cardioid Geometry](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1953693), [Mereology](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1959777) and [Battlelines](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1960131)

“Please kill me.”

“Not so long ago you were frightened for your life.”

“I’m well beyond that now. I can’t take it any longer and I just want to die so that this can all end.” Her body clearly has her larynx bugged because the moment she utters those words her intestines do their best to make their presence known, squirming around like a thousand snakes who happen to somehow be carrying some really sharp knives. She no longer bothers to make the effort to travel to the bathroom, she is pretty sure that she wouldn’t make it if she tried, as it is her muscles offer some heavy protest to the fact that she is leaning over the edge of the couch. A foreign hand assists in holding her hair back and she would smile at this if she was capable of moving her mouth from the contorted position that it has adopted. She can’t understand how there can be anything left for her body to expel, she should be a desiccated corpse by now but the razor blades that are slicing their way back up her alimentary canal are definitely riding on of a wave of bitter liquid.

When the bout has passed she slowly rolls back, her eyes remain closed until the discomfort from her abdominal muscles is less than that from her internal organs. She gingerly opens her eyes, frightened that even that small movement might cause her pain.

“Are you okay?”

She wants to launch into a tirade about the ridiculousness of the question but now is not the time to take Bree to task over her small talk skills, “Well I’m still alive so I guess the answer is no.”

“Are you going to get up and wash your face?”

“It hurts too much to move.”

“I see,” it’s impossible not to detect the note of horror in Bree’s voice.

“But you’re going to stay with me anyway aren’t you?”

“I guess so.”

She issues a small smile, “You really do love me don’t you?”

“So it would seem.” Bree somehow manages to express her disappointment in herself and her affection for Lynette in that short fragment.

“Are you mad that this was self-inflicted?”

“I worry about your level of maturity and not just because you effectively joined in their juvenile games, raw meat carries diseases.”

“So does sushi and yet you eat that. Besides I had a point to prove.”

“You mean you had to protect Tom.”

“Don’t be upset, I would have done the same for you.”

“Lynette I can not imagine that there will ever be an occasion in which my behaviour forces you to defend my honour by eating raw bacon.”

She has to suppress her laugh because the movement it causes spreads burning agony throughout her body, “Probably not.”

“Aren’t you even mad at Tom that you did this for him and he’s gone out with your boss tonight?”

“It’s important to him and I have you.”

“I’ve told you before, I am not your fall back option.”

“No, you’re the one I want looking after me when I’m sick. You might lecture but Tom is just useless.”

“I don’t like to compare myself with him but I find that I do it all the time and I want you to know that I would never leave you when you were sick.”

“I know.”

“How can you be so calm when he all but tied you and the kids up in a big red bow and gave you to me for the night?”

“I like that you’ve bothered to give the bow a colour but it’s the bit where I get to spend time with you that works for me. I don’t go around looking my gift horses in the mouth, I’m just sorry that I have you here and I don’t feel up to having sex.”

“That’s okay, there’s not a whole lot about you that is sexy right at this second.”

“I hope this doesn’t put you off me permanently.”

“Well a whole lot of toothpaste will be required before I am going to kiss you again.”

“That bad huh?” she asks as her stomach, in a blatant act of treason, improvises a gross concerto and she is forced to lean over again. Her body makes alarming noises as it is wracked with spasms. She can no longer support her weight with her arms and just leans her head over the bucket showing little respect for the laws of gravity. Bree again performs the role of hair rescuer but extends her duties to stroking Lynette’s back and placing reassuring kisses on the nape of her neck.

When it seems that her body is done with its effort to remove her gastrointestinal system via her mouth she finds that she can’t be bothered to move, she remains suspended of the edge of the couch in a state of limbo. Bree eventually pulls Lynette back into her lap and the look of concern on her face is hard to ignore, “Are you sure that you don’t want to seek medical advice?”

“You were married to a doctor, that’s good enough for me. I’m still on the plan for death. I want you to kill me and sell my organs on the black market.”

“I don’t think you should talk about death so flippantly,” Bree delivers the words casually but there is no disguising the emotion in her eyes. Usually she would feel a pang of guilt at having caused Bree pain but if she does experience anything it is overwhelmed by the myriad unpleasant sensations that have already taken up residence in her body.

“It’s not like I was going to live forever if I didn’t mention it and on a serious note you’re not in my will, you don’t get anything if I die, at least this way I would be helping to look after you.”

“Rex didn’t leave me destitute you don’t have to worry about that, if anything I should be thinking about supporting you.”

“I’m sorry if I was getting morose it’s hard not to when I feel so crap but even at the best of times it makes me sad that in the eyes of the world you are just my neighbour but if I do by some miracle manage to survive this illness I would be willing to discuss the idea of you supporting me.” She has to close her eyes when she is finished talking as though the act has taken a major toll.

“It doesn’t matter what other people think, you are my family and at this point you mean more to mean than any other member of it.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do, I hate that what we do goes against everything that I was raised to believe in and yet you are the only member of my family that I am proud to claim as my own.”

“Things are really bad with your kids aren’t they?”

“You have no idea.”

“No I don’t, cause you won’t talk about it.”

“I don’t know how to talk about it.”

“I’m not going to think less or you, I’m lying here puking my guts up because I ate raw meat in a pointless battle of wills and even though I won I don’t think that I would be in any sort of position to judge you.”

“Maybe not but my glass house is pretty flimsy right now.”

“I’m not sure that my house even has walls. Do you think we tell one another less now?”

“Now that we’ve been intimate?”

“Before that even, ever since we’ve admitted that there is something here.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I can’t say that I worry more about what you think of me than I used to, I’ve always very much cared what people thought of me.”

“It might just be me then. I think I care more and tell you less. It’s not just you, I think I do it with Tom too.”

“Are you unhappy?”

“Right now I am fucking miserable.”

“When you haven’t gorged yourself on meat products are you unhappy?”

“I think so.” 

“It’s it because of us?” Bree’s voice if soft and her body stiffens as though she is bracing herself for bad news.

With incredible effort she reaches her arm behind her to grab Bree’s hand, “No. Lately being with you is the only time I come close to being happy.” As lies go, her statement is relatively close to the truth. She is starting to think that relationships are defined by what one doesn’t say. Because she loves Bree she doesn’t tell her that being with her is complicated and painful and that the moments of bliss are too rationed to be truly fulfilling. Because she loves Tom she doesn’t tell him that he somehow makes her feel that she is so much better than him and yet also completely unworthy of his love. Because she has to live with herself she tries not to acknowledge that going back to work may not have been the best decision, that it steals time from her children and from Bree or that she has changed and is no longer going to be satisfied with people adoring her for her ideas. She knows that she’s not in the best frame of mind but even when she’s well she struggles to keep all of the balls that she is juggling in the air. To date she is surviving but as Bree strokes her forehead with tenderness she knows that she can’t keep this up forever and she doesn’t want to think about what she might have to sacrifice because she’s terrified that it is a decision that is going to need to be made with her head and not her heart.


End file.
